Conventionally postage meter setting mechanisms have included a plurality of printing wheels, four or five of such wheels, rotatably mounted coaxially within the print drum of the postage meter. Embossed around the circumference of each print wheel is a plurality of numeral characters generally ranging from zero to nine. Each print wheel has an associated drive mechanism for selectively positioning the print wheel in a given tangentially aligning such that a given character is positioned within the a print opening in the print drum. By aligning the print wheels to the print drum opening, a given dollar currency amount can be indicated within the postage indicia printing by the postage meter on a envelope.
Where the postage meter is part of a high speed mixed mail processing system, it is not extraordinary for the print wheel settings to require modification or changing after each postage meter print cycle. That is, because each mail piece may require a different indicia postage value, which amount is a function of the weight of the respective mailpiece, to be printed on the mailpiece.
As a result of required print wheel resets, one of the limitations to indicia printing speed of the postage meter, i.e., mail piece processing rate, is the print wheel setting time required between postage meter print cycles. Therefor, increasing the processing rate of the postage meter is in part dependent upon minimizing the print wheel setting time required between print cycles. The minimum print wheel setting speed is a function of the speed position accuracy of the print wheel drive mechanism and the maximum radial distance between the two furthermost print wheel characters within the value range. It is readily recognized that the postage meter print wheel setting speed is adversely affected by the number of print wheels which must be set where such wheel are set sequentially.